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Gender Pay Reporting - clarification of scope

The Government has clarified the scope of the mandatory gender pay reporting requirement to include a wider definition of employee.

Many employers are now in the process of preparing for mandatory gender pay reporting following the publication of draft regulations earlier this year. Employers with 250 or more employees will need to publish information annually about the amount of pay received by men and women in their organisation, specifically:

Overall gender pay gap figures calculated using both mean and median average pay.

The number of men and women in each of four salary quartiles, based on the employer’s overall pay range.

Information on the gender pay gap relating to bonuses.

Current indications are that the Government will produce sector-based tables of employers’ reported gender pay gaps and will ‘name and shame’ employers who do not comply with the reporting requirement. For further information please see our update here.

One point that had not been clear from the draft Regulations was whether an employer’s gender pay report had to cover all staff (including those who would fall into the broader definition of ‘worker’ such as casual or agency staff) or whether it only has to cover employees. The Government Equalities Office has clarified that the intention of the Regulations is to use the wider definition of employee which would mean that LLP members, atypical workers, casual staff, agency staff and some self-employed contractors are likely to be caught within the legislation. There is likely to be further clarification on this point when the final Regulations are published later this year. In the meantime, it is important to ensure that gender pay audits take into account all staff likely to be ‘in scope’ when collating data for the statutory reporting requirement.